The present invention relates to medication dispensing systems, and also to a novel medicine cabinet structure and a novel tray structure for use in such systems.
Automated medication dispensing systems have been in use for many years. The initial purpose of such systems was to reduce the high rates of medication errors associated with manual distribution. The literature indicates that medication errors occur in the following areas: 55% at ordering, 33% at administration, 6% at transportation and 5% at dispensing. The current automated systems present more sophisticated advantages, including: lower costs associated with pharmaceutical distribution, reduction of personnel, inventory control, substance control, automated documentation, further reduction of errors, and relieving professional pharmacists and nursing personnel of many tasks.
There are two types of dispensing systems currently employed in medical facilities: centralized systems, and decentralized systems.
The centralized systems are based on the transfer of the physician""s orders/prescription to the central pharmacy of the medical facility. These systems facilitate the transfer of these orders to the central pharmacy after being reviewed by personnel in the ward/floor, whereupon the orders are reviewed, authorized and filled by a pharmacist, sent as a unit dose to the ward, and then dispensed to the appropriate patient. Centralized systems are used primarily in the U.S.A. They are costly and very inefficient, mainly because of the use of a large trained staff.
Decentralized systems are based on ward stocks managed by trained nursing personnel in conjunction with dedicated pharmacists from the hospital pharmacy to the given department. The dispensing procedure traditionally proceeds as follows:
1. The nurse receives from the physician the prescription/s stating the medication, time of delivery, and route (p.o., i.v., etc.).
2. At the appropriate time, the nurse retrieves the appropriate medication/s for the patients according to a list of orders, places the medications into a receptacle, usually with an attachment that indicates the patient""s name, places the receptacles on a tray, and then commences to dispense the receptacles to the patients in the ward.
The foregoing traditional method is subject to a number of disadvantages including: (1) possible confusion between patient files; (2) errors in brand or dosage when retrieving medications from the medicine cabinet; (3) errors in identifying individual patients; (4) errors in receptacle identification; (5) demanding much of the nurse""s time; (6) possibility of mistakes in inventory keeping and pharmacy ordering; and (7) very low degree of control even though expensive and narcotic drugs are involved.
A report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies released in November 1999 in the U.S.A. calls on Congress to create a national patient safety center to develop new tools and systems, the reason being alarming figures regarding human cost of medical errors. Deaths from medical errors are estimated, according to different studies, to be between 44,000 to 98,000 people in the U.S. hospitals each year, more than those from highway accidents, breast cancer or aids. . The report states that illegible handwriting, and the treatment of patients by several practitioners that do not have complete information about the medicines prescribed and the patient""s illnesses, are part of the basic flaws in the way the health system is presently organized. William Richardson, chairman of the committee, is quoted saying xe2x80x9cIt may be part of human nature to err, but it is also part of human nature to create solutions, find better alternatives, and meet the challenges aheadxe2x80x9d
Medication management devices generally fall under three categories: (a) automated devices in the central pharmacy area; (b) automated devices in the patient care unit; and (c) point-of-care information systems.
The primary goal of centrally-located devices is to replace or improve the current manual process for filling unit dose carts. These devices offer the advantage of a single, centralized inventory and a lower overall inventory. Disadvantages of such devices include large size, high cost, and reliance on efficient delivery systems from the central pharmacy
Patient care unit-based devices replace the traditional manual unit dose cart filling and delivery system and provide increased control over floor stock. Advantages of such systems include smaller size and lower cost relative to centrally-located devices, immediate access to medications, and automated documentation of medication administration.
Point-of-care systems are designed to enable immediate exchange of patient data at the bedside. Such systems allow for rapid access to patient information, fast documentation, integration of hospital information systems, and immediate verification of drug administration. Many systems have been proposed and are described in the literature in all three of the above areas for minimizing or eliminating the above-described disadvantages of the existing systems. Examples of such recent developments are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,032,155; 6,021,392; 5,912,818; 5,314,243; 5,564,803; 6,003,006; 6,068,156; 5,842,976; 5,797,515; 5,014,875; 5,460,294; and 5,713,485.
However, there is still a very pressing need to provide a medication dispensing system which meets the following goals: (1) secure and reliable medication dispensing; (2) more efficient and faster dispensing in comparison to the existing methods; (3) collection of vital signs (i.e., temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure) simultaneously with medication dispensing; (4) maximum automation and employment of computerized paperless operation; (5) automatic management of drug inventory in each department; (6) protection of xe2x80x9cdrug abusexe2x80x9d by medical and para-medical personnel; and (7) special protection for narcotic drugs.
An object of the present invention is to provide a medication dispensing system, and also a medicine cabinet structure and a tray structure, enabling attaining one or more of the foregoing goals.
According to one broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medication dispensing system, comprising: a medicine cabinet having a plurality of compartments for containing supplies of different kinds of medications to be accessed by a healthcare attendant for preparing individual medication dosages for named patients; and at least one tray having a plurality of sections for receiving a plurality of receptacles each adapted to contain one or more medication dosages prescribed for a named patient; the medicine cabinet including a cabinet processor having a memory for storing the names of patients and their prescribed medication dosages, and a display screen for displaying the patient names and their respective prescribed medication dosages; the tray including a display screen for displaying the patient names and their respective medication dosages, and a communication link with the medicine cabinet through which the cabinet processor communicates to the tray the patient names and their respective medication dosages.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medication dispensing system, comprising: a medicine cabinet having a plurality of compartments for containing supplies of different kinds of medications to be accessed by a healthcare attendant for preparing individual medication dosages for named patients; at least one tray having a plurality of sections for receiving a plurality of receptacles each adapted to contain one or more medication dosages prescribed for a named patient; and a central processor having a memory for storing the patients names and prescribed medication dosages; the medicine cabinet including a communication link with the central processor, and a memory for storing the names of the patients and their prescribed medication dosages communicated thereto by the central processor; the tray including a communication link with the cabinet processor, and having a display for displaying the patient names and their respective medication dosages communicated thereto by the cabinet processor.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medication dispensing system, comprising: a medicine cabinet having a plurality of compartments for containing supplies of different kinds of medications to be accessed by a healthcare attendant for preparing individual medication dosages for named patients; at least one tray having a plurality of sections for receiving a plurality of receptacles each adapted to contain one or more medication dosages prescribed for a named patient; and a central processor having a memory for storing the patients names and prescribed medication dosages; the medicine cabinet including a cabinet processor having a communication link with the central processor, and a plurality of indicators, one for each of the compartments, to indicate the compartment containing the medication supply to be included in a prescribed medication dosage for a named patient.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medication dispensing system, comprising a medicine cabinet having a plurality of compartments for containing supplies of different kinds of medications to be accessed by a healthcare attendant for preparing individual medication dosages for named patients; at least one tray having a plurality of sections for receiving a plurality of receptacles each adapted to contain one or more medication dosages prescribed for a named patient; and a central processor having a memory for storing the patients names and prescribed medication dosages; the compartments in the medicine cabinet being in the form of drawers which are normally locked but which are selectively unlocked by the cabinet processor when containing a medication supply to be included in a prescribed medication dosage for a named patient; the medicine cabinet further including a plurality of light indicators, one for each of the compartments, controlled by the cabinet processor to indicate the compartment containing the medication supply to be included in a prescribed medication dosage for a named patient.
As used herein in the specification and in the claims section that follows, the term xe2x80x9cdrawerxe2x80x9d includes any type of storage compartment, such as, but not limited to, conventional drawers and bins.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tray for a medication dispensing system, the tray comprising: a plurality of sections for receiving a plurality of receptacles each adapted to contain one or more medication dosages prescribed for a named patient; and a display screen for displaying the patient names and their respective medication dosages.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medicine cabinet for a medication dispensing system, the medicine cabinet comprising: a housing including a plurality of compartments for containing supplies of different kinds of medications to be accessed by a health care attendant for preparing individual medication dosages for named patients; a processor having a memory for storing the names of patients and their prescribed medication dosages; and a display screen for displaying the patient names and their respective prescribed medication dosages.
As will be described more particularly below, the above features of the invention, particularly when used together, integrate concepts of point-of-care systems with patient care unit devices, eliminate unnecessary and costly elements, and thus enable an efficient safe system to be attained having a user friendly operation, modular interfacing, computerized tracking and verification at all levels.
Implementation of the method and system of the present invention involves performing or completing selected tasks or steps manually, automatically, or a combination thereof. Moreover, according to actual instrumentation and equipment of preferred embodiments of the method and system of the present invention, several selected steps could be implemented by hardware or by software on any operating system of any firmware or a combination thereof. For example, as hardware, selected steps of the invention could be implemented as a chip or a circuit. As software, selected steps of the invention could be implemented as a plurality of software instructions being executed by a computer using any suitable operating system. In any case, selected steps of the method and system of the invention could be described as being performed by a data processor, such as a computing platform for executing a plurality of instructions.
Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description below.